Beach Boulevard strip club construction underway

Eron Ben-Yehuda

The future Flamingo Adult Theater on Beach Boulevard near Talbert Avenue

is quickly taking shape, with the foundation finished and the building’s

frame nearly complete.

The sex-oriented business could open its doors as early as January, said

Max Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Tatarian family, which owns the property

at 18121 Beach Blvd., where a French restaurant once stood.

Concerned about attracting prostitution and drug use, the city had fought

since 1996 to keep the club out.

But judicial decisions protecting an adult entertainment’s constitutional

freedom to operate forced the city to settle out of court in June.

“Whether I agree with it or not, they have certain rights,” City

Councilman Ralph Bauer said.

But Ahmadi said officials shouldn’t be so “hypersensitive.”

“They’re afraid of what they don’t know anything about,” he said.

There are plenty of strip clubs in other cities, and they’ve had few

problems, he said. “Everything that exists emits some gas.”

The club’s design plans submitted to the city in May show a beige,

one-story building with green awnings over opaque windows. Ahmadi has

joked in the past that the architectural style is similar to a Coco’s

family restaurant.

Tatarian’s lawyers are still analyzing court rulings to determine whether

the entertainers will be partially or fully nude, Ahmadi said.

Bauer, a man of strong religious faith, doesn’t expect the club to be

successful.

The type of tourists that want to “have a good time” stay far enough away

from Huntington Beach, while residents, by and large, prefer other forms

of entertainment, he said.

“This is a pretty family-oriented town.”